The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, on Thursday said Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has set up an ad-hoc technical advisory group to support the implementation of the five-year National Multi-Sectoral Plan of Action on Nutrition.

He said the development was part of the Federal Government’s resolve to address the problems of hunger and malnutrition in the country.

Akande disclosed this in a statement titled, “FG’s fight against hunger: VP sets up technical team to facilitate 5-year action plan on nutrition.”

He said Osinbajo constituted the technical advisory group during the week when he called a virtual meeting of the National Committee on Food and Nutrition, a week after the National Council on Nutrition adopted the plan of action.

Membership of the advisory group, according to the presidential aide, is drawn from the Office of the Vice President, Nigerian Governors Forum, Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Nutrition Partners Forum, Organised Private Sector, academia/research, Scaling Up Nutrition Secretariat at the Federal Ministry of Health, civil society groups and the UN Nutrition.

He quoted Osinbajo as saying that “The technical advisory group will provide high-level strategic advice and support to the secretariat of the National Council on Nutrition on the National Policy on Food and Nutrition’s vision and strategy, thereby facilitating nutrition positioning and comparative advantage to enable maximum impact.

“For the next few months, this group composed of select members of the National Council on Nutrition who are heads of major MDAs and agencies will have the following mandate:

“To provide technical assistance to the NCN and Secretariat, and facilitate inter and intra-agency coordination, supervision and monitoring, and implementation of the National Multi-sectoral Plan of Action on Nutrition.

“The assignment will be executed by developing a synthesised work plan for National Multisectoral Plan of Action on Nutrition; identifying and documenting the roles of each sector and MDA, as well as the relationship(s) between these roles and the achievement of nutrition outcomes, based on the NMPAN.

“The group will work with the newly constituted National Committee on Food and Nutrition to define and train the secretariat on the capacity needs for the development and implementation of nutrition programs and projects as defined by the NMPAN and; develop a comprehensive advocacy, information and education strategy for the NMPAN”

Stating the significance of the group’s assignment, Akande quoted Osinbajo as adding that “We need more than ever to think holistically if we are to solve the issues of malnutrition, in my opinion, we have embarked on a new era, where collaboration and active engagement of stakeholders to assist with implementing the NMPAN is embedded in our agenda and should propel us forward.”

The National Council on Food and Nutrition chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at its last meeting approved the action plan titled the “National Multi-Sectoral Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition 2021-2025” with a target of addressing nutrition and related problems across the country.